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. 2020 Feb 18;17(4):1306.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17041306.

Socioeconomic Status, Parental Education, School Connectedness and Individual Socio-Cultural Resources in Vulnerability for Drug Use among Students

Gilberto Gerra  1 , Elisa Benedetti  2 , Giuliano Resce  2 , Roberta Potente  2 , Arianna Cutilli  2 , Sabrina Molinaro  2
Affiliations

Socioeconomic Status, Parental Education, School Connectedness and Individual Socio-Cultural Resources in Vulnerability for Drug Use among Students

Gilberto Gerra et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background and aims: Families who live in a disadvantaged socioeconomic situation frequently face substandard housing, unsafe neighborhoods, inadequate schools and more stress in their daily lives than more affluent families, with a host of psychological and developmental consequences that can hinder their children's development in many ways. However, the measurement of socioeconomic status among youth and its link with different forms of illicit substance use is challenging and still unclear. This paper extends existing research on the relationship between socioeconomic status and illicit drug use among adolescents by focusing on three different patterns of use (experimental, episodic and frequent) and making use of two indicators to improve the measurement of individual socioeconomic characteristics in a big sample of European students.

Methods: Data were drawn from the European school Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD), which, since 1995, collects comparable data among 15-to-16-year-old students to monitor trends in drug use and other risk behaviors across Europe. The sample comes from 28 countries that participated in the 2015 data collection. The consumption of cannabis, cocaine and heroin are considered, and the related patterns are identified based on the frequency of use. Family characteristics at student level are defined through two dimensions: parental educational level and perceived socioeconomic status. Multivariate multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression was performed in order to measure the association between individual characteristics and vulnerability for drug use.

Results: Some patterns of use, episodic and frequent in particular, were found strongly associated with a lower socioeconomic status and lower parental education.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that drug policies should be combined with actions aimed at removing barriers to social inclusion that are attributable to the socioeconomic background of adolescents.

Keywords: cannabis; cocaine; drug use; heroine; parental education; socioeconomic inequalities.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Multivariate multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval: (A) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education and the patterns of cannabis use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent); (B) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education, truancy at school, reading books for enjoyment and the patterns of cannabis use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent). Authors’ elaboration on ESPAD data.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Multivariate multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval: (A) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education and the patterns of cannabis use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent); (B) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education, truancy at school, reading books for enjoyment and the patterns of cannabis use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent). Authors’ elaboration on ESPAD data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Multivariate multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval: (A) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education and the patterns of cocaine use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent); (B) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education, truancy at school, reading books for enjoyment and the patterns of cocaine use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent). Authors’ elaboration on ESPAD data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Multivariate multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval: (A) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education and the patterns of cocaine use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent); (B) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education, truancy at school, reading books for enjoyment and the patterns of cocaine use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent). Authors’ elaboration on ESPAD data.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Multivariate multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval: (A) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education and the patterns of heroin use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent); (B) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education, truancy at school, reading books for enjoyment and the patterns of heroin use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent). Authors’ elaboration on ESPAD data.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Multivariate multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval: (A) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education and the patterns of heroin use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent); (B) relation between students’ socioeconomic status, parental education, truancy at school, reading books for enjoyment and the patterns of heroin use (Experimenter, Episodic and Frequent). Authors’ elaboration on ESPAD data.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Quadrant analysis with adjusted Odds Ratios (aOR) for low socioeconomic status and low parental education with model A. Authors’ elaboration on ESPAD data. Note: upper right quadrant = low socioeconomic status and low parental education; bottom right quadrant = high socioeconomic status and low parental education; bottom left quadrant = high socioeconomic status and high parental education; upper left quadrant = low socioeconomic status and high parental education.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Quadrant analysis with adjusted Odds Ratios (aOR) for low socioeconomic status and low parental education with model B. Authors’ elaboration on ESPAD data. Note: upper right quadrant = low socioeconomic status and low parental education; bottom right quadrant = high socioeconomic status and low parental education; bottom left quadrant = high socioeconomic status and high parental education; upper left quadrant = low socioeconomic status and high parental education.
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